


Bad Dream

by PalmettoFoxDen



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M, Neil goes missing without actually going anywhere, Nightmares, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 11:29:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11758911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PalmettoFoxDen/pseuds/PalmettoFoxDen
Summary: Andrew has a nightmare about losing Neil, so Neil spends the rest of the night in Andrew's bed. The next morning, no one can find Neil and Andrew is no help.





	Bad Dream

Andrew Minyard woke up slick with sweat and felt his heart pounding hard against his chest.

He was no stranger to nightmares. In his sleep, he was often seven years old again, powerless and begging and hating himself for it. Sometimes that foster father was replaced by Drake or Proust. Those dreams were horrible and made him sick to his stomach, but at least they were predictable. He knew how they ended. He knew they were over as soon as he woke up and spotted the room around him. Nightmares featuring Neil weren’t as common, but they were somehow worse. Even when he woke up and realized where he was, he couldn’t shake off the image of Neil lying dead.

Andrew knew Neil was a weak spot for him. He’d take suffering himself over watching Neil hurt for him any day without a second thought. Even if Neil’s martyr complex did make Andrew want to wring his neck.

A few minutes passed and adrenaline was still pumping through Andrew’s veins. Sleep was a pipe dream at this point, so he climbed down the ladder of his loft bed and stood in silence for a moment when he hit the floor. He stared over at Neil and only felt slightly reassured by the fact that he was in his bed where he was supposed to be.

He looked so small, curled up in the blankets, and Andrew couldn’t detect any movement. He tried to watch for the rise and fall of Neil’s chest, but the room was dark and it was hard to see him under the covers. The only sounds were that of Andrew’s blood rushing in his ears and the faint background noise of Nicky’s quiet snores. A horrible sensation told Andrew that Neil wasn’t breathing and that set Andrew’s every nerve ending on fire. But that was ridiculous. He couldn’t hear Kevin breathing either. That didn’t mean Kevin was dead.

Andrew needed to get a grip. This was pathetic. He would know if something had happened to either of them. He would have woken up. He was just being paranoid.

The sudden realization that he was standing over Neil’s bed, staring at him in the middle of the night, and the memory of waking up to shadowy figures hovering over his own bed prompted Andrew to turn away.

He grabbed his pack of cigarettes off the dresser and slipped out of the room. He considered going to the roof, but odds were that someone would wake up at the sound of the door closing. As tempting as it was to make noise and get Neil up to make sure he was really okay, Andrew didn’t actually want to wake any of them up. He didn’t need them knowing he was having trouble sleeping. He didn’t want them knowing about the nightmares and he sure as hell didn’t want Neil asking about them.

So, he headed over to his desk instead and sat on top of it as he lit up a cigarette with shaky hands. He was halfway through his second cigarette when he heard footsteps coming from the bedroom. He forced himself to stare out the window instead of looking. It was only a moment before Neil appeared in his peripheral vision.

He’d been asleep when Andrew had gotten up. There was no reason he should know Andrew wasn’t in bed. Except, he had probably smelled the smoke and come to check on him. Andrew wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or annoyed by it. He was leaning towards annoyed.

When Andrew didn’t say anything, Neil broke the silence with, “Can’t sleep?”

Andrew blew out a mouthful of smoke without turning his gaze from the window. “So observant. What was your first hint?”

Neil didn’t answer and Andrew wanted to ignore him. He meant to ignore him, but Neil’s silence was so deafening that finally he reluctantly turned and faced him.

Fuck. He shouldn’t have looked at him. The moonlight streaming through the window made Neil’s eyes practically glow in the dim room. He looked so surreal, Andrew’s chest clenched and he wondered if he was awake after all. Sometimes Neil still didn’t seem real. Andrew had a hard time believing he actually had Neil in whatever way it was that he did. He had a hard time believing Neil actually wanted him.

“Bad dream?” Neil asked finally.

For a moment, Andrew considered how much to reveal, then he nodded his head in agreement. “It was a real nightmare. There were two Kevins.”

But that was a mistake because Neil wasn’t laughing. He didn’t even have the decency to say anything or brush the comment off. He just unabashedly studied Andrew with that concerned look that got under Andrew’s skin so much. Neil was searching for answers Andrew didn’t want to give him. Andrew was afraid of what Neil might find written on his face, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away.

Andrew stuck an arm out and grabbed Neil by the chin, needing to _feel_ that he was really there. Neil went perfectly still and let Andrew lean forwards as he tilted his head in wonder. Andrew narrowed his eyes, but Neil didn’t react. Neil was doing everything in his power not to react for Andrew’s sake. He felt as real as ever beneath Andrew’s fingertips, so Andrew dropped his hand and leaned back against the wall with his head angled towards the window again.

He took another drag of his cigarette and they stayed at that impasse in silence for a long moment. Neil stood there, studying Andrew’s expression, while Andrew did his best to remain expressionless and pretend he didn’t notice Neil there. Andrew was debating whether he should put out his cigarette or light another one for Neil when Neil started talking again.

“I used to have nightmares every night,” Neil told him. “When you don’t stay anywhere for long enough, you don’t get used to sleeping anywhere. I’d wake up with no idea where I was, convinced that my father had finally found us. I was sure that every little noise was one of his men just outside the room and I’d lie there paralyzed, waiting for them to get me and hoping that if I didn’t move that somehow they wouldn’t be able to.”

Andrew didn’t say anything, but he glanced in Neil’s direction again. Apparently, Neil took that as encouragement because he started talking a little faster.

“I still have them now, but not as often,” he continued. “I still have nights where I’m back in that car with Lola or where my father’s finally tracked me down. Sometimes, for a few seconds after I wake up, I forget my father’s dead and I’m paralyzed again. But then Kevin tells me to get up for practice or I hear Nicky rambling on about something or other or I hear him snoring and I look around the room and realize where I am. And I remember that I’m safe with you now.”

Andrew took another slow drag of his cigarette and looked out the window at the full moon as he mulled Neil’s words over. He wasn’t sure why he did what he did next. Maybe it was because Neil had been so honest with him.

“I dreamed you were back with your father,” he said slowly. He was careful not to look over at Neil again and he brought his cigarette back to his lips and exhaled a cloud of smoke once more before he continued. “Only, your uncle and the FBI were too late. You came out in a body bag.”

As the words lingered in the air between them, Andrew’s confession felt a little too heavy to him.

He flicked some ash in the general direction of the window as he muttered out, “If anyone’s killing you, it’s going to be me.”

Neil was used to that kind of comment though. Andrew’s threats had become empty to Neil a long time ago. He ignored the threat altogether and threw Andrew’s own words back at him as he insisted, “I am not going anywhere.”

The words were comforting in a sickening kind of way. They were as irritating as they were reassuring, but Andrew let it slide and changed the subject instead of arguing.

“You should go back to bed.”

“I’m not tired,” Neil claimed.

Andrew knew that was a load of shit. They got up early for practices every morning and Neil pushed himself to his limits at Kevin’s extra practices every night. Between early mornings, three practices a day, classes, and late nights on the roof with Andrew, Neil couldn’t afford to lose any of what little sleep he got.

“You are a liar,” Andrew accused.

“I’m not going back to bed and leaving you out here on your own,” Neil insisted.

“I do not need you to babysit me,” Andrew responded in an irritable tone.

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways,” Neil argued.

He really was a stubborn little shit. Andrew considered for a moment then questioned, “Will you go back to bed if I do?”

Neil quickly nodded his head in agreement, then tripped over his words as he offered, “We could go to bed together- I mean, I could go to your bed with you. But only if you-”

He must have noticed the look on Andrew’s face because he cut himself off mid-sentence and stared at Andrew like he was sure he had just made things worse.

Andrew remained silent for a long moment as he considered his options while Neil remained perfectly silent and still. Finally, Andrew stubbed his cigarette out on the windowsill. “Okay.”

Neil looked surprised, even though it had been his offer, as he echoed, “Okay?”

“Yes,” Andrew clarified. He rose from his desk as he added, “As long as you want to.”

“Yes. I want to,” Neil responded a little too quickly.

Andrew walked back into the bedroom without a word. He didn’t need to look back to know Neil was following him.

He gestured with his chin for Neil to go up the ladder first and Neil obediently scrambled up to Andrew’s loft bed. When Andrew climbed up after him, Neil was already lying as close to the wall as was possible without touching it. Then his back was pressed against the wall as he moved to accommodate Andrew.

Andrew waited for Neil to finish shifting, then crawled into bed. Neil remained perfectly still as Andrew made himself comfortable, leaving an inch between him and Neil. He was still closer to the edge of the loft than he would prefer, but he had yet to fall off of it so he wrote off the twinge of fear as irrational. After a minute had passed and he hadn’t fallen or even slid closer to the edge, he managed to distract himself from that fear as Neil glanced at him with curious eyes.

“Go to sleep,” Andrew grumbled out.

Neil watched him for a half second longer before he closed his eyes. Andrew kept his open for a moment longer.

Lying there, facing Neil and having direct proof that he was really there and was really okay, was surprisingly reassuring. Maybe the bed was a little cramped, and maybe it was only a few hours until they would be woken up for early morning practice, but Neil was safe. And Neil was respecting Andrew’s boundaries, sleeping against the hard wall just to give Andrew a little more personal space.

Neil’s presence, right there next to him without touching, felt safe. Andrew would never in a million years admit that to Neil, but he probably didn’t have to say the words for Neil to figure that out. As thick as he was at times, Neil could be irritably perceptive when it came to Andrew.

* * *

When Andrew woke up the next morning, he opened his eyes to find Neil still asleep.

He could get out of bed. He probably should get up to take a piss and get something to eat, but he didn’t want to move and wake Neil up any earlier than was necessary. After all, the idiot had sat up with him last night and could use the sleep.

Besides, if Andrew got up that would be it. There was no way he could come back to bed in a room shared with Nicky and Kevin without gathering unwanted attention. Even if Neil slept through Andrew getting up, he would wake up then.

Andrew wasn’t about to lie there and stare into Neil’s eyes all morning when Neil woke up. No way. But if he was lying there, trying not to wake Neil up anyways, then maybe it was okay to watch him sleep and listen to his quiet, steady breathing. If Neil ever caught him staring like this, he would never let him live it down, but Andrew could let himself slip and be comforted by Neil’s presence in bed with him with the safety of knowing Neil would never find out.

The shuffling of someone getting out of bed behind him dragged Andrew out of his thoughts. The footsteps sounded like Nicky and Andrew quickly shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep so that he could buy himself a few more minutes of peace and quiet with Neil before he would have to get up and listen to Nicky’s everyday complaints about what an ungodly hour they had to get up at for practice.

The soft creak of the bedroom door shutting told Andrew that he had gotten away with it, but it was only a matter of minutes before Kevin’s alarm went off anyways. Kevin turned it off on the third beep and rose from bed with a groggy, “Get up.”

Andrew made a point of ignoring Kevin as he left the room. That worked for a grand total of five minutes before Kevin was awake enough to reach his usual level of annoying.

Kevin threw the door open as he reentered the room and insisted, “Get up, Andrew.”

Andrew let out a groan in response because he knew it would bother Kevin.

“You’re not going to make us late for practice,” Kevin warned.

Andrew knew that was an empty threat just as well as Kevin did, but he also knew how incredibly annoying Kevin could be when anything interfered with his precious practices. Andrew didn’t think he could stand to listen to the complaints all day, so he rolled out of bed and carefully stepped down the ladder.

When his feet hit the floor, he stood perfectly still and stared Kevin down instead of moving to get ready. He couldn’t have Kevin thinking he was willing to be too cooperative, or else Kevin might start having actual expectations of Andrew and that wouldn’t do. It was bad enough that he’d slipped and given Neil expectations. He couldn’t handle two of them.

Nicky walked into the room and interrupted their glaring match as he demanded, “Where’s Neil?”

Kevin turned away first with a frown and Andrew took the opportunity to look between Nicky’s confused expression and Neil’s empty bed he was staring at.

Andrew was still irritated with Kevin for making him get up and he didn’t feel like waking Neil up when he clearly needed the sleep worse than Andrew had thought if he had yet to wake up. Besides, if he woke Neil up in his bed, Nicky would make a big scene of it. He thought it would be much more interesting to let them flounder for a while, searching for Neil while he was right there anyways.

Kevin looked around the room confused as he insisted, “Neil wouldn’t miss practice.”

He headed out of the room to double check the other rooms as Nicky pulled out his phone to call Neil. Neil’s cellphone rang on the dresser and Andrew was surprised it even had enough battery to take a call.

As Nicky walked over to Neil’s phone with a frown and Kevin searched the rest of the dorm, Andrew took the opportunity to glance in the direction of his loft bed. The blankets were in a state of disarray, but they looked like Andrew had thrown them off and not like Neil was curled up in them. He was far enough back that he couldn’t be seen from the floor, at least at Andrew’s height. Kevin and Nicky didn’t seem able to spot him either, since no matter how many times Nicky looked around the room, he didn’t notice him there.

Andrew went to the washroom, expecting them to wake Neil up while he was gone and for the fun to be ruined. But then something truly incredible happened. Andrew followed Kevin back into the bedroom when he had finished searching the entire dorm room and Kevin looked right at the loft bed for a moment before his eyes flickered over to Nicky.

“He isn’t here,” Kevin said in a tone of disbelief.

Nicky was already on the phone with Matt, asking if he had any clue where Neil might be or if he had seen him, but he held his hand over the microphone and held the speaker away from his ear for a moment as he said, “Matt hasn’t seen him.”

“Maybe he went for a jog and he’s already at the gym?” Kevin suggested doubtfully.

Andrew went to go pour himself a bowl of Frosted Flakes, since this was starting to seem like it might take a while for them to figure out. When he returned to the living room, Kevin was standing by the window on the phone. Nicky was pacing between the living room and the bedroom, still jabbering away about how Neil was missing.

Kevin hung up and turned around as he announced, “Coach says he isn’t at the gym.”

Andrew scooped a spoonful of cereal into his mouth and glanced between the pair as Nicky held his phone in one hand and ran his fingers through his hair with the other.

“Dan says they haven’t heard or seen anything either,” Nicky told them.

Nicky paced back into the bedroom as if Neil might have appeared in his bed in the thirty seconds since he had left and Andrew followed at a leisurely pace with his cereal in hand.

When Kevin followed, Nicky ignored the phone in his hand to yell at Kevin. “Anything you want to tell us, Kevin?”

“Me?” Kevin demanded.

“You’re the one who always knows something when he goes missing,” Nicky retorted.

“I have no idea where he is,” Kevin insisted. “I’m as worried as you are.”

Nicky shot a distrustful look in Kevin’s direction, but let Dan’s voice on the other end of his phone distract him.

“I don’t know,” Nicky agreed into the phone. “Wherever he is, he didn’t take his phone. But that’s not really surprising with Neil.”

Dan said something loudly in response, but Andrew couldn’t quite make it out from across the room.

“Or we could implant him with a tracking device,” Nicky suggested in response.

Wymack called Kevin back then and Kevin and Nicky jumped in surprise.

Kevin answered the phone, then was visibly disappointed as he announced, “He’s not at the court either.”

Nicky reached freak out level twelve then as he loudly questioned, “Well, where else would he be? I mean, should we call the police? He’s already scarred enough and I’d like to get him back in one piece.”

“Get who back in one piece?”

The room went pin drop silent as Nicky and Kevin glanced in the direction the voice had come from. Andrew followed their gazes just in time to see Neil’s head pop up over the edge of the loft. He had a terrible case of bedhead and looked like he was still half asleep.

“Neil?” Nicky said, sounding too surprised to get anything else out. Dan said something on the other end of the line again and Nicky quickly added, “Yeah, we found him. We’ll meet you at the gym.”

Nicky was livid as he hung up and glared over at Andrew.

“You knew he was there the entire time and didn’t bother to tell us?” He demanded. “I was ready to file a missing person’s report.”

Andrew leaned against the doorframe and spooned another mouthful of cereal into his mouth. He chewed it slowly before he finally responded, “He was fine the whole time and now practice is going to be shorter. I don’t see a downside.”

Neil suddenly looked a lot more awake as his eyes went wide.

“We’re late for practice?” He questioned, then shot a pointed look in Andrew’s direction. “You could have woken me up.”

Andrew shrugged. “Do I look like an alarm clock?”

Kevin looked irritated beyond belief as he glared at Andrew and complained, “I can’t believe the whole team is late for practice because you couldn’t bother to tell us he was in your bed.”

“You didn’t ask if he was,” Andrew retorted.

“I hate this team,” Kevin said loudly.

Neil didn’t so much climb down the ladder as he half fell out of Andrew’s bed in his rush to get ready for practice. He was still fully dressed in the sweats and t shirt he had gone to sleep in the night before, but Andrew’s bedding was tangled around his legs and fell to the floor with him.

“I’ll be ready in five, maybe three, minutes,” Neil insisted in an urgent tone.

Andrew finished his cereal and threw some clothes on. By the time Neil made it to the door, everyone else was ready and waiting.

Kevin ripped the door open, eager to get to the gym and Neil moved to follow, but Andrew took a detour into the kitchen, despite Kevin’s complaints.

Neil really was an idiot. He was so worried about making it to the gym that he was clearly planning on skipping breakfast altogether. Kevin could wait a few more fucking seconds. It wouldn’t kill him.

Andrew walked back out of the kitchen with a box of Kevin’s granola bars in his hands.

He tossed them at Neil and said, “Eat in the car.”

He pushed his way out of the apartment, past Kevin and Nicky who were staring at him open-mouthed, and pretended he didn’t notice the looks he was getting.

“Does this mean I can eat in your car now too?” Nicky questioned.

“No.”

Maybe Andrew had a strict no food in the car rule, but he had a stricter Neil not putting exy ahead of his own well-being rule. He didn’t have the patience to deal with Neil passing out in the gym because he was too stupid to eat anything.

“Not fair,” Nicky complained.

“Life isn’t fair,” Andrew retorted.

* * *

Neil barely made it inside the gym before the upperclassmen swarmed him and started inspecting him for damage. They were needlessly babying him, even after Neil told them, “I’m fine.”

Wymack sounded irritated and concerned as he insisted, “I am going to ask you if you are okay and you are going to give me a real answer. None of that I’m fine bullshit, alright?”

Neil nodded his head in agreement.

“So, are you okay?”

“I’m fi-” Neil started on autopilot before he thought to cut himself off. “I’m alright, really. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Andrew watched as Nicky and the upperclassmen scowled in disagreement.

Before Wymack could criticize his answer, Dan questioned, “Where were you, Neil?”

There was a brief silence as Neil looked to Andrew as if seeking permission to answer the question. Nicky couldn’t hold back any longer though, so he answered for them.

“Andrew’s bed,” he said in a suggestive tone that made Andrew want to reach for his knives.

Allison glanced between Neil and Andrew with a smug smirk and then finally settled her gaze on Andrew as she questioned, “And you didn’t notice he was there?”

“I knew he was there,” Andrew responded nonchalantly.

“And you didn’t think to say anything?” Dan demanded.

“Why would I?” Andrew questioned.

“Because he was missing,” Matt pointed out in an annoyed tone.

“No, he wasn’t,” Andrew retorted. “I knew where he was.”

“Are you kidding me?” Allison demanded.

“You all wanted him back in one piece, right?” Andrew asked. “Well, there he is. In one piece. What’s your problem?”

“We’re late for practice,” Kevin grumbled in a bitter tone.

“So?” Andrew asked. “We must not be a very good team if half an hour of practice is going to make or break us.”

“Alright, enough of this,” Wymack cut them off. “Kevin’s right. We’ve already wasted enough of our practice on this. We don’t need to waste any more time on it.”

“Fine by me,” Andrew responded. He could happily do without his teammates’ dramatics.

Wymack glanced between Andrew and Neil, then settled his gaze on Andrew as he warned, “But if you ever pull a stunt like this again, we’ll double the length of afternoon practices.”

“Don’t worry,” Andrew told him. “I’m pretty sure they’ll think to check my bed next time.”


End file.
